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Alfonso XIII´s reign
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THE TRAGIC WEEK
The Spanish goverment needed reservists to fight in the war. On 26 July 1909, trade unions and anarchists organised a general strike in Barcelona to protest against the war.
The goverment finally restored order, but over a hundred people had been killed, and five leaders of the protests were executed. -
THE CRISIS OF 1917
Many people became poorer. This cause three separate crisis in 1917:
- Army officers in peninsular Spain formed juntas de defensa, which were organisations to defend their rights.
- A group of republicans, socialists and Cataln nationalists formed an unofficial "parliamentary assembly". They demanded a new goverment and a constituent assembly to write a new democratic constitution.
- PSOE and UGT organised a general strike to bring about political change. -
THE FAILURE OF THE LIBERAL STATE
-In 1921 the prime minister Eduardo Dato was assassinated by an anarchist.
-In 1912, Northern Morocco had become a Spanish protectorate, but many Moroccns never accepted the occupation.
- The events of 1921 increased the feeling that the Spanish liberal state had failed -
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Primo de Rivera´s Dictatorship
On 13 September 1923, Miguel Primo de Rivera, the Captian General of Catalonia, led a military coup. He immediately dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution.
Primo de Rivera established an authoritarian and nationalist government, which was inspired by Mussolini´s fascist regime in Italy. He invested in industry and infrastructure projects.
He lost the support of the king. In 1929, the Wall Street Crash caused an economic crisis in Spain and in 1930 he was forced to resign. -
THE SECOND REPUBLIC
In 1930, republican and socialist groups signed the Pact of San Sebastian, wich promised to replace the monarchy with a democratic government.
In April 1931, Alfonso realised that he had lost the support of the Spanish people, and went into exile. This create the Second Republic -
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1931
The socialists and republicans formed a coaliion government, with Manuel Azaña as its prime minister. Niceto Alcalá Zamora became the new president of the republic.
In 1931 the goverment aprroved a new constitution based on popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.
Including:
-Universal suffrage.
-Freedom of speech, a right to education and a right to divorce.
-Autonomy.
-Freedom of religion and the separation of the state and Church.
-An end to state subsidies for the clergy. -
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REFORMIST BIENNIUM
The first two years of the Second Republic are known as the Reformist Biennium, because the goverment introduced reforms:
- It reduced the Church´s role in the education system.
-Workers were given new rights.
-The maximum working day for agricultural labourers was set at eight hours.
-The Spanish army had too many officers, so they were encouraged to retire on full pay. Those who chose to stay in the army had to swear loyalty to republic.
-Catalonia introduced a Statute of Autonomy. -
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The Second Republic
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GENERAL JOSÉ SANJURJO
In 1932, General José Sanjurjo attempted a right-wing coup against the government. The coup failed, and Sanjurjo was imprisoned. -
THE CASAS VIEJAS MASSACRE
At the start of 1933, there was a small anarchist rebellion. In Casas Viejas a group of anarchists killed a member of the Civil Guard. The Civil Guard responded by burning down a house where the anarchists took refuge, and killing over 20 people, many of whom were unarmed. -
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Spanish Civil War
After the Popular Front´s victory, a republican government was formed led by Izquierda Republicana.The prime minister was Santiago Casares Quiroga.
The government was attacked:
-Many right-wing groups and military leaders started planning a coup. José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the leader of the Falange, wanted to establish a fascit dictatorship.
-Anarchists and some socialists wanted a social revolution
would replace the bourgeois democracy with a socialist state. -
THE START OF THE DICTATORSHIP
After winning the Civil War, Franco established an authoritarian dictatorship.
Franco, who as known as the Caudillo, was the head of state and held all of the political power, replaced the constitution of 1931 with fudamental laws, wich established the rights and duties of Spanish people.
The Falange played a very big part in Spanish life. -
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Franco´s Dictatorship
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REFORMS
In the 1950s, Spain suffered an economic crisis, and Franco realised that some reforms were needed. He asked new people to join his government based on their technical knowledge. These ministers are therefore known as the technocrats.
In the late 1960s, Franco started making plans for what would happen after he died. In 1969, he named Alfonso XIII´s grandson, Juan Carlos, as his successor. -
SPAIN´S ECONOMY UNDER FRANCO
The Civil War destroyed Spain´s infrastucture and left the economy in ruins.
Franco´s model for the economy was based on insolationism and government intervention:
-Insolationism: Spain made almost all of the products that it needed.
-Intervention: The state fixed prices of essential goods, and chose which companies were allowed to export and import different products. This led to corruption. In the 1960, the Spanish economy grew very quickly. -
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The Transition
On 20 November 1975, Franco died. This led to the transition, wich is the name given to the period between the end of Franco´s dictatorship and the establishment of a stable democracy.
As Franco had planned, King Juan Carlos I became the new head of state, supported democratic reform and made Adolfo Suárez prime minister. -
THE FIRST ELECTIONS
A general election was held in June 1977. This was the first democratic election in Spain since 1936.
It was won by the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD).
The PSOE, led by Felipe González, came second in the election. -
THE NEW CONSTITUTION
The new constitution was also based on consensus: it had to be acceptable to all political parties, so that future governments would´t want to change it. The constitution was approved by a referendum on 6 December 1978. -
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Democracy
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THE ATTEMPED COUP OF 1981
After the Constitution had been approved, a new general election was held in 1979, wich was won by Suárez that faced many problems, including terrorist attacks by ETA.
The new prime minister was Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo. During the vote, a group of Civil Guards led by Colonel Antonio Tejeo entered parliament and held the deputies hostage. -
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FELIPE GONZÁLEZ´S GOVERNMENTS
Felipe Gónzalez won three more general elections, and governed until 1996. During that period:
-Spain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1986.
-Spain´s membership of NATO was approved in a referendum in 1986.
-There was grreater investment in public services, like the health and education systems. In 1933:
-The government had used illegal death squads, known as GAL, to fight against Eta in the 1980s.
- It was revealed that the PSOE had financed itself illegally. -
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AZNAR´S GOVERNMENTS
Anzar´s first priority was to meet the criteria for joining the euro. This involved cutting the budget deficit and reducing inflation.
On 11 March 2004, three days before a general election, ten bombs exploded almost simultaneously on four trains in the Madrid area.
The government blamed ETA for the bombing, but it was later confirmed that Islamist terrorist had planted the bombs. -
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ZAPATERO´S GOVERNMENT
The new PSOE government was led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. It introduced a number of social reforms:
-A global financial crisis caused the world economy to slow down.
-The Spanish construccion boom was coming to an end. -
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RAJOY´S GOVERNMENT
The PP, led by Mariano Rajoy, won the 2012 general election.
On 19 June 2014, King Juan Carlos abdicated in favour of his son Felipe VI, who became the new head of state. Felipe´s daughter Leonor is his heir, and was given the title of Princess of Asturias.